Countless touring openers have been found out by Australia’s bouncy decks, so Yashasvi Jaiswal’s first-innings dismissal in Perth seemed like the start of a familiar story.

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The left-hander, looking to hit his way out of trouble on day one, wafted at a length delivery by Mitchell Starc and spooned a regulation catch towards gully, trudging off for an eighth-ball duck.

Jaiswal’s natural game is to attack — his career strike rate in Tests is currently hovering around 70 — but the 22-year-old looked desperate to send an early message without allowing himself an opportunity to settle.

An adjustment was required, albeit a small one — as noted by former Australian opener David Warner on Fox Cricket commentary, Jaiswal was playing at the ball before planting his front foot, reaching away from his body with his weight back.

Just over 48 hours later, Jaiswal was looking at the heavens with arms raised, soaking up the applause while celebrating his fourth Test century. The rising star turned towards the Indian sheds and frantically pumped his fists, acknowledging his proud teammates.

He finished with 161 (297), the fourth-highest score of his brief Test career. Only one Test cricketer boasts more 150+ scores before their 23rd birthday — Sir Donald Bradman.

Jaiswal’s Perth century wasn’t only a dazzling spectacle — it proved he could adapt his game when required, demonstrating maturity beyond his years.

“He’s been labelled as the next big thing, but what he brought to the table was his match-awareness more than anything else,” former Indian coach Ravi Shastri said on Fox Cricket.

“When you have that much talent, when you have all the shots in the book, you know you can take down a spinner at will.

“But then to play within yourself and put the team in front of you, and respecting the situation the team’s in, is the highlight of that innings.”

After his first-innings failed, he played the ball later with weight on his front foot in the second dig. With a steady base, he defended under his eyeline, trusting the consistent bounce to leave with confidence.

Jaiswal was patient and disciplined on day two, absorbing short deliveries and leaving with authority throughout the afternoon session. He needed 123 deliveries to reach fifty, making it the slowest half-century of his Test career to date.

“I just liked his temperament, the way he defended,” Warner said.

“He waited for the ball nice and late, and then when he needed to play, he played his expanding shots.”

Jaiswal changed gears after the minor milestone. He became more adventurous with his shot selection once the ball had softened and the pitch had lost its moisture, whipping out an assortment of swashbuckling shots to reignite the Perth crowd.

Suddenly, he didn’t look like someone playing their first Test in Australia, instead as though he’d grown up in these conditions.

Walking across the pitch, he whipped Starc over square leg for an audacious boundary, barking at the tall quick: “It’s coming too slow.”

Confidence or arrogance, that’s for you to decide, but Jaiswal showed he wouldn’t back down from a fight. He backed up his words with a pair of glorious sixes, the second of which sailed over 100 metres.

It was entertaining, but his defence was equally as impressive, with his wrists, feet and bat in perfect sync. You wouldn’t describe his batting as ‘pretty’, but at full flight, he’s fluent and elegant.

There were no signs of nerves — he teased Marnus Labuschagne by lingering outside his crease, cheekily encouraging the Queenslander to take a ping at the pegs.

Unbeaten on 90 overnight, Jaiswal brought up his hundred on Sunday morning with a ramp shot, deflecting a bumper from Josh Hazlewood over the wicketkeeper’s head. The third umpire needed to check whether it made the distance, but replays showed the Kookaburra had landed flush on the Toblerone padding.

From there on, he started flashing at everything, switching to a white-ball tempo — he wanted to heap pain on the fatigued Australians.

Jaiswal has already set the record for most Test sixes in a calendar year, surpassing the previous record set by Brendon McCullum, the mastermind behind Bazball. No doubt he’ll add a few more to his tally over the coming weeks.

He isn’t an imposing figure, with his small stature and baby face, but he’s deceptively powerful — when the willow’s in his hands, he’s as dangerous as they come.

His natural aggression has drawn comparisons to Virender Sehwag, and the vicious swipes through point were undoubtedly reminiscent of the former Indian opener.

Later on Sunday, Australia added a third man to deter Jaiswal from attacking short wide deliveries — but he didn’t care, swinging harder and hitting the ball over the fielder’s head.

”Australia have got no real answers for Jaiswal,” former Test spinner Kerry O’Keeffe said on Fox Cricket.

“When you’re waiting for mistakes from a classy player on a good batting deck, you might wait a long time.”

It wasn’t a flawless knock — Usman Khawaja dropped a low catch at first slip on 51, with Australia missing two run-out chances at the non-striker’s end. In the afternoon session, he gloved a short ball from rival captain Pat Cummins down the leg side, but wicketkeeper Alex Carey could only manage a fingertip.

But Jaiswal has a knack converting his hundreds into ‘daddy hundreds’ — each of his four Test hundreds finished as 150+ scores, becoming just the second cricketer to achieve the feat alongside former South African captain Graeme Smith.

The marathon knock ended in anticlimactic fashion, carving a half-tracker from seamer Mitchell Marsh towards point. Initially bemused at his error, Jaiswal gave teammate Virat Kohli a thumbs up after a few seconds at the crease and marched off, receiving a thunderous applause from the adoring Perth crowd, which had risen to its feet.

Jaiswal’s rags-to-riches story is well-documented. Leaving home aged 11 to chase his cricket dream, he sold pani puri – a type of Indian street food — while sleeping in a Mumbai tent, also sheltering in a dairy for a period.

After becoming the youngest double-centurion in List A history in 2019, Jaiswal was named player of the tournament at the 2020 Under-19 Cricket World Cup. His stature grew over the coming years, accumulating in a Test debut in 2023.

Jaiswal has since cemented his status as one of cricket’s most exciting prospects. After scoring a maiden Test century against the West Indies in Dominica, he clobbered twin double-hundreds against England to help India seal a 4-1 series triumph over the old enemy.

He not only outplayed England’s Bazballers — he dominated them.

However, following a challenging tour of South Africa, where he compiled 50 runs at 12.50, questions lingered over how he’d cope on pace-friendly decks outside Asia. Any such concerns have since been quashed.

In 1992, a young Sachin Tendulkar announced himself to the cricket world by cracking a breakout hundred at the SCG. Although a few years older than the ‘Little Master’, Jaiswal’s Perth hundred could prove his equivalent statement performance.

And the best is still to come.

“We’ve unearthed the next generational batting talent,” former England captain Michael Vaughan declared on Fox Cricket.